Puyallup hospital escapee arrested, accused of trying to rob janitor of her car, charges say
A man who escaped from Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup and tried to steal a janitor’s Jeep was charged with first-degree robbery Thursday.
The 27-year-old pleaded not guilty at arraignment and was ordered held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Charging papers filed in Pierce County Superior give this account of what happened:
Police got a call Monday that the man had been involuntarily committed to the hospital following an overdose and had escaped and tried to steal a car.
“Dispatch advised that hospital security last saw the defendant wearing (a) green and blue hospital gown and pants, a blood pressure cuff and EKG leads,” the declaration for determination of probable cause said.
He approached a woman who works for a cleaning company as she was trying to open the door to a nearby medical building.
He asked her for a ride and she refused. Then he grabbed a rock the size of a softball and said: “Give me the (expletive) keys.”
The probable cause statement says she told police: “... the defendant held the rock up as if he was going to strike the victim in the head with it.”
A struggle ensued and the man grabbed the keys and got into the woman’s Jeep Wrangler, which was parked nearby.
The woman jumped into the passenger seat, and the struggle for the keys continued.
She won the keys when she told the man police were coming, and he took off.
“A subject believed to be the defendant was later seen walking naked around” a nearby parking lot, the probable cause statement said.
A man matching his description also asked someone at a nearby apartment complex for a ride, saying he’d just gotten out of the hospital.
Police found the suspect Wednesday in Lacey.
“The defendant said he had no recollection of the robbery and said he was ‘coming off an OD,’” the probable cause statement said. “He also said that someone had stuffed methamphetamine into his mouth.”
On the way to jail he allegedly asked: “What do you think my chances are of beating these charges?”
